We currently face a baffling paradox. While since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 a seemingly inexorable process of globalisation has been foreshadowing a peaceful and frontierless world, the number of walls across the world has been rising at a steady pace. Liberal and open societies buttressed by trade, international law and technological progress were supposed to implacably contribute to the erosion of frontiers and walls between nations. However, in a context of surging populist discourses, securitarian anxieties and identitarian politics as well as concomitant flows of migration alimented by climate change, conflict and poverty, nations have recently started to barricade themselves behind new walls.
© Chappatte dans Le Temps, Genève.
In 2024, nearly half the world’s population, including citizens of the eight most populous nations, voted or will vote in elections. While this signals democratic engagement, many elections are run by autocratic or illiberal regimes pursuing self-serving agendas. Paradoxically thus, as elections are generalising as a practice, democracy is met with growing defiance. On closer scrutiny, however, it appears that it is not only the indicators of democracy but also those of elections that have been declining over the past decade. This dossier, produced with the Albert Hirschman Centre for Democracy, examines the essential role of elections in the construction of democracy today.
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I
Do Elections Still Serve Democracy?
Reading time: 7 min -
1
European Elections 2024: The Cordon Sanitaire and the Rightward Shift
Reading time: 5 min -
2
United States: A Model Democracy under Threat?
Reading time: 5 min -
3
Debunking the Myth of “Sham Elections” in the Middle East
Reading time: 5 min -
4
Russia’s Vestiges of Democracy
Reading time: 5 min -
5
A Victory without Time to Celebrate: The Challenges for Mexico’s First Female President
Reading time: 5 min -
6
What the South African Elections Say about Its Democracy
Reading time: 6 min -
7
Democratic Challenges: The Gap between Political Platforms and Climate Concerns in Argentina
Reading time: 5 min -
8
El Salvador’s “Strongman”
Reading time: 5 min -
9
Democracy, Civil Disobedience and Populism
Reading time: 5 min -
10
Legitimacy under Pressure: The Role of Electoral Observation
Reading time: 5 min -
11
The Funding of Election Campaigns in India
Reading time: 6 min -
12
The Politics in Anti-Politically Correct Discourses
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O
Elections and Democracy in 2024: Three Overriding Trends
Reading time: 5 min